PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. - A spokesman for former contractors to the NewPage mill says some harvesters likely won't be going back to work under a $14-million Nova Scotia government program.
A group of 18 contractors who cut Crown wood met yesterday to discuss the harvesting program meant to keep the industry alive until a buyer is found for the mill.
Paul Delaney says the majority are dissatisfied with pay rates and harvesting areas contained in the package funded by the province.
Delaney says most of the contractors are being asked to work at 50 per cent capacity and with a 15 to 20 per cent cut in pay.
He also says many are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by NewPage.
Natural Resources spokesman Allan Eddy says there was room to discuss some of the problems raised by contractors.
Eddy says the program had to change the focus from providing pulp wood to the mill to harvesting products such as smaller saw logs.
